Sometimes it is Best to Simply Walk Away
Have you ever started a project but soon realized that the work required to get the job done was more involved than what you thought that it would be? I had the experience this past week of landing what looked to be a good project but soon turned out to be more time consuming than what the client originally indicated.
The research and writing time for each article (there were to be 25) I had estimated would take about 90 minutes of my time. As it turns out the client wanted much more detailed research than what he originally conveyed to me. I had no problem with this, however I asked him to either cut the number of articles for the price or to accept a higher cost for my work.
We went back and forth with emails and I knew it wasn’t going to end favorably for either one of us. One message he sent to me was on the insulting side so I wrote back stating that, “I am a professional writer,” thus my rate must reflect the level of work he expected from me.
After his unfortunate comment I wrote back and told him that I thought it was best to withdraw from the project as we could not come to an agreement on price.
Truthfully, I am glad that this job did not get going. There was something about the project that didn’t sit right with me and all of that was borne out later in our exchange of messages.
Yes, sometimes it is best to simply walk away from a project in order to preserve your integrity and to reiterate your worth. I am glad that I did.
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freelance writer, article writer, writing projects, copywriter, editor
I have a problem where I overbook my time and it is too much to get into, but I don’t want to back out as it would ruin my reputation. A few weeks ago I stated that I would manage websites for a few people, and I received about 15 responses, of the 15 I picked three. In the end, none of the sies really worked out except one, which was I did some work for then it went dead for a month, and now I am back on the job full throttle.
I am encountering this problem all the time, I never really look to much into the jobs before I start them then I end up with a shock of how much needs to be done. Future lesson look more into the job before taking it on.